James Cunningham (naturalist)

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James Cunningham (* before 1698; † 1709 ) was a British doctor and plant collector.

Life

Cunninghamia

James Cunningham was a member of the Scottish Cunningham clan . He was a surgeon and was in the service of the British East India Company . He stayed in India until 1698 . Probably on the outward journey, he also came to Ascension where he collected plants and shells, which he sent to scientists in England. During his stay at the Cape of Good Hope , he made observations of the temperature profile .

But then he went to the British Amoy factory in China . around 1700 he went to the Chusan trading post , where he also carried out investigations into the weather. Until 1703 he collected plants or samples of them which he sent to John Ray , James Petiver and Leonard Plukenet . Plukenet in particular cited Cunningham significantly as a result. In 1703 he was transferred to Pulo Kondor , where on May 15, 1705 he was one of the few survivors of a mutiny by Macassar mercenaries who were supposed to protect the station. The survivors turned to the local government, which killed the mutineers but also some of the survivors. Cunningham was taken to Barrea, where he was tried on April 29, 1705. He stayed there for two years.

In June 1707 he came to Banjarmassin on Borneo , where a trading post had been established in 1706. But only 10 days after his arrival, on June 27, 1707, the station was raided and burned down. But Cunningham himself managed to escape. He reached Batavia and wanted to return to England by ship, but died in 1709 on the way back. His last known letter is from January 4, 1709.

Cunningham described the tea bush ( Camellia sinensis ) and discovered the spit fir , which was named Cunninghamia lanceolata in his honor . In his reports he corrected many mistakes made by other European researchers, so he could show that the tea originated in China and not from India as previously believed.

Works

His letters can be found in the John Ray , James Petiver and Leonard Plukenet as well as in scientific publications of the Royal Society .

  • Universal history , Volume 10, p. 154 Report on the mutiny in Pulo Kondor
  • Philosophical Transactions , No. 255, Volume 21, p. 295, A catalog of plants and Shells on the isle of Ascension
  • Philosophical Transactions , No. 256, Volume 21, p. 323, Some Observations of the Mercury's Altitude, with the Changes of the Weather at Emuy in China
  • Philosophical Transactions , No. 264, Volume 22, Page 577, On the declination of the Needle and a thermometrical Obersavation near the line
  • Philosophical Transactions , No. 292, Vol. 23, pp. 1639 and 1648, A metheological Register of the weather, on the Voage to China and a register of the Weather at Chusan in China
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society , No. 280 Volume 23, pp. 277-288 and pp. 1201-1209, Part of Two Letters to the Publisher from Mr James Cunningham, FRS and Physician to the English at Chusan in China, Giving an Account of His Voyage Thither, of the Island of Chusan, of the Several Sorts of Tea, of the Fishing, Agriculture of the Chinese, etc. with Several Observations not Hitherto Taken Notice of

literature

  • Emil Bretschneider : History of European Botanical Discoveries in China , 2011, p. 31 (partial view)
  • James Britten and GS Boulger: A Biographical Index of British and Irish Botanists. West, Newman & Co, London 1893
  • Gordon Goodwin: Cunningham, James. In: Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 13, 1888, pp. 312-313 ( digitized version )
  • Richard Pulteney : Historical and Biographical Sketches of the Progress of Botany in England , Volume 2, London 1790, pp. 59f
  • Robert Watt: Bibliotheca Britannica. Or A General Index to British and Foreign Literature. 4 volumes, Constable [ua], Edinburgh [ua] 1824

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helmut Genaust : Etymological Dictionary of Botanical Plant Names . 3. Edition. Birkhäuser , Basel / Boston / Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-7643-2390-6 ( Cunninghámia , p. 190 ).
  2. ↑ Gottfried Zirnstein: Discovery of diversity in the world of organisms. Some of the past recording and opening up of the diversity of the organism world on earth. 2015 ( p. 70 ) (PDF; 28.9 MB)
  3. ^ The East Indian Gazetteer , Volume 1, p. 132


personal data
SURNAME Cunningham, James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British doctor and plant collector
DATE OF BIRTH before 1698
DATE OF DEATH 1709